Asher listened, his arms crossed and his chin tucked slightly as he waited Verissa out, struggling with the urge to say something comforting but suspecting that it wouldn't actually help if he did. All these years he had avoided the responsibility of owning a slave, and as he felt an ache in his chest grow, sympathetic to Verissa's distress, it seemed confirmation that he was not the right man for this, even now.

He couldn't help feel a jab of anger when the terrified woman voiced her fear. It seemed unjust. Hadn't he been kind? Far more so than most men would have been? He had put his life and his reputation on the line to protect her from Jasper, an act that he knew would have repercussions somewhere down the road. He had taken her in to look after her himself, and while his broody widower lifestyle wasn't exactly something to be proud of, it had grown quite familiar after a decade. Would she always suspect him of being one step away from brutalizing her?  

Asher seemed to deflate a little, his stern features growing more hollow, haunted, his arms uncrossing from his chest to hang loosely at his sides.

[color=707070]"I'm not going to hurt you, Verissa,"[/color] he muttered somewhat thickly, lifting his hand to rub his face. [color=707070]"Not on purpose. I'm sorry if I grabbed your arm too hard, I just thought you were already hurt. Why would you be punished? I don't understand this thinking. For being a mage? Is that what they do to mages in Ebonfort, truly? I had heard it, but didn't believe they would be so...foolish."[/color] The very idea only fed into the smoldering hatred he felt for the Ebon Knights, one more transgression in an infinite litany of charges, the death of his family being the blackest of them all.

[color=707070]"You don't need to worry about your pups. They may not trust me, but even if something happened to you I would make sure they were kept fed. No one is punished for being a mage here. Some tribes are even open only to other magic users. Magic is just like anything else. As long as you aren't using it to hurt the tribe you're welcome to practice it and make it stronger."[/color]

She was closer now, her eyes watery and wide with fear. How strange was it that after a decade of living alone his arms lifted automatically when she came close. Verissa was not Wren, but he still didn't want to see her so distraught. Risking the appearance of another purple apparition, Asher tucked an arm around the small of Verissa's back, the other up near behind her shoulder, his skin warm in spite of being bare.

[color=707070]"I don't want you to leave either,"[/color] he said, his gray gaze flicking across her face before settling on her eyes again. The full weight of her admission didn't hit him right away, mainly because he was too modest a man to think that she might have been implying that [i]he[/i] could be the reason she didn't want to go. [color=707070]"Call me biased, but if you lived in fear like this all the time, what do you have to go back to? At least here you can be yourself. And as soon as our laws allow, I'll help you take the Hunt so that you don't have to be a slave anymore. If you don't want it known that you're a mage, I will keep my silence as long as I can. You should be proud of it, but it's your secret to tell when you are ready."[/color]

He lifted a hand to gently stroke her blonde hair. If Verissa being a mage somehow became relevant to the safety of his people, Asher would have no choice but to go to Ozlo, but for now there was no harm in letting her have the time to gain confidence until she was willing to tell people herself. 

The solid fighter lapsed into silence as the soup began to roil in the pot behind Verissa. Having a beautiful woman in his arms was...nice. But the feeling came with a side of guilt. He was still married, wasn't he?